The Sewers of Paris

The Sewers of Paris is a podcast of revealing personal stories about how entertainment has changed the lives of gay men. Each week, a guest plucks a piece of entertainment from their past -- book, movies, music, shows, and more -- and answers the question: how did it change your life?

This Week's Guest: Mouse

We all have alter egos -- most of us more than one. There's the person you are at work, the person you are online, the fun person you are when splashing around at the beach, the responsible person you are when your parents are visiting, and the unique kind of angry person that only exists when you're waiting for everyone ahead of you to get off the airplane.

But for some, those alter-egos aren't people at all. My guest this week is Mouse, a furry artist who never felt like he fit in with other humans. Fortunately, times being what they are, you no longer have to fit in with humans. There's a whole big wide world of cartoon animals out there you can join instead. And as Mouse found, sometimes those people who are animals are better people than the people who are people.

This Week's Recommendation: Pinocchio

Thanks again to Mouse for joining me, and also for the lovely illustration that he drew depicting me as a rabbit. As a slightly nervous, always listening, mostly-herbivore, no depiction could possibly be more appropriate.

For more of Mouse's work, check out his latest project, Mice Making Love, which is exactly what it sounds like. It's at MiceMakingLove.tumblr.com. The art spans all genders and sexualities, kinks, partner arrangements, body types, and, just to warn you, there is one cat.

For my recommendation this week, I'd like to you turn your gaze to another character with large ears: Pinocchio. Specifically, give the Pleasure Island scene a watch. If you dare. It is full-on dark Disney, a fantastically scary form of body-horror that will stay with you whether you want it to or not.

I'm sure you're familiar with the scene -- Pinocchio and Lampwick and the other bad boys have found their way to an island where pleasures await, but when they indulge too much they're turned into donkeys and sent to work in salt mines. The scene where Lampwick struggles and screams as he changes is unforgettable, no matter how you interpret it, and it culminates in Pinocchio's body starting to change as well. He drank and smoked, and as a result our hero grows ears and a tail.

In the movie, this is depicted as horrifying, and yes if it goes any further and he's confined to bestial labor in the salt mines it is indeed a troubling fate. But Pinocchio's changes really stop at the ideal point: subtle enough that he can hide them in a hat or down his pants, but still an unmistakable badge of his adventure. A reminder that it's not necessarily a bad thing to have some fun, to go a little wild, and be disobedient -- just as long as you can keep it under your hat.

Thanks again for listening. If you're enjoying the show, I hope you'll become a supporter on Patreon -- it's quick and easy and your support keeps the show alive. Just visit SewersOfParis.com and click the Patreon button to sign up. And check out the shownotes at SewersOfParis.com to watch video clips of everything we talked about on this week's show.

Or you can support the show for free -- just tweet or facebook about it, or leave an iTunes review. I'm really really grateful to all the folks who have helped spread the word about The Sewers of Paris. Because of your tweets, I've booked some high-profile guests who saw online praise for the show and reached out to say "hey, can I be on the show too?"

Remember to head over to PlayingWithPride.com to find out when you can see the stories we've gathered from queer gamers. And say hi if you'll be at GaymerX in October.